Spik is a delicious word, meaning variously the innards of a monkey, the part of a hat that touches the top of your head, or a kind of flammable elk, wiped out by deforestation. The spik (elk) was known for its liberal tendencies, and love of strawberries and cream. It would often break into pottery stores in order to feast on the innards of those foolish enough to want pottery.

A small Rodent from the forests of the western Draocca river basin in central Congo, the unusual name arose from the peculiarly formed liver of this animal, which curves out in a cup shaped manner rather like a Crinoid. Scientifically known as Leptopedos crinoideformis, the term "grass cutter" arose from the native Pidgin english name for such rodents, the "cutting grass". The creatures have big incisors and construct their nests from grass stems, and when seen often are carrying large bunches of these stems between their teeth.

Nesting
Nests are constructed within abandoned termite mounds, and young are reared approximately every 7 months, gestation lasting only 3 weeks. They feed entirely on DragonflyLarvae which crawl the grassy reed beds they frequent.

The native Bantu name for the lily-livered grass cutter is tgemo, and natives often catch them as food, eating the orange-green coloured fat on the hind legs, which is considered a delicacy.

Relations
Their closest relative is the Large-jawed grass cutter, Leptopedos megadontata, which is arboreal, feeding on the grubs of the yellow-headed false klannigo weevil.

A small flightless Bird, native to the Indian ocean island of Walekia, the white-throated toad-eating plover is not a true Plover, but really belongs to the Rail familly. It feeds exclusively on toads, which it catches using a large, hooked beak. The name given to this behaviour is 'bufovorous'. It is severely threatened in the wild due to the accidental introduction of Rats into the island, which attack its nests and poach its eggs.

When chicks hatch out they are green and leathery, possibly mimicking a distasteful species of Tree frog found in the area.

This unique Bat - Pteroteigus laminosus - has three ears, one of which exists only as a Fashion accessory to impress other bats. Research carried out by eminent bat BiologistDr. Betta Von Flysving of Gricthaben University suggests that only particularly shaped ears are sucessful in find mates.

They are facing extinction due to overcollecting to meet the demand from Japan for Bat-tail soup.

The Barbazonoid is a pseudo intelligent Platypus-like office dwelling entity.
It is known for whistling out of tune, constantly mingling in other species' business and generaly creating havoc on the fly.

Contents

The origins of the Barbazonoid can be traced back to the african Stone age, as manifested in the pre-historic cave art of Ethiopia.
First, the mythic creature, half man, half platypus, part Ashkenazi, was supposed to bring good luck to the few who saw him.
Then, according to local legends, the Barbazonoid started, what was called, the big migration. Moving from Africa to eastern Europe through the arctic shelf.
European artifacts and legends, passed from generation to generation, place the first seen Barbazonoid dinasty around ancient Constantinople.

The legends say that the unusual form of the Barbazonoid relies on a sad mishap, hundreds of thousands of years ago, when a very drunk Homo erectus, intoxicated on the roots of local Cacti , presumably fell in love with a female platipus. The platipus, said to be white and pure as heaven, tricked the drunken african-african into sperm donation and thus begun the race of Barbazonoids.

As the legend originated in Ethiopia, the creature's naming is based on what is believed to be an Aramic dialect, introduced to the region by the decendends of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Hence the name, platypus like - Barbazonoid (the Hebrew word for 'platypus' is 'Barbazon'), in the ancient language.

As the Barbazonoid is a tragic inter-racial decendend of humans and platypuses, it is believed that its name derived from being "like a barbazon" or "barbazon" like. Mostly based on its shown features.

The Barbazonoid is mostly a solitary migrator, travelling alone along the European - African birds migration paths. Although highly adaptive to its environment, researchers believe the roots of this annual migration lay in its African origins.

The Barbazonoid community is a yearly assembly where Barbazonoids gather for mating reasons. During this period, taking roughly a month, the Alpha male Barbazonoid is busy sexually harassing all available females, while the rest of the male Barbazonoids flock for leftovers.

The mating season follows a short time span of several days, where the Barbazonoids demonstrate a highly organized social culture in which they vote (in democratic secretive election) for the alpha male. In cases such as draw or the inability to decide, the male Barbazonoids just go at each other's throats to decide the winner.

The Barbazonoid is condidered highly intelligent and uses its ability to mask itself as mostly human (due to the duality of its origins) in order to pose as a high-tech job seeker and provides coding services to sponsor the yearly migration.
Barbazonoids fail to solve a Rubik's Cube but make up for it with cunning techniques of trickery and deception.

Today, the Barbazonoids are considered an endangered species. The last marked known remaining nests were discovered in Israel, near the shores of the mighty river yarkon. A careful advance and observation may reveal the wonderous courting habbits of this magnificent creature.